Olive Oil from Apollo Olive Oil : Gourmet Extra Virgin Organic Olive Oil from California

ORGANIC FARMING | THE PLANT | THE SOIL
THE ECOSYSTEM | FRESH FOOD | HEALTH BENEFITS

ORGANIC FARMING

True organic farming is respectful. It knows that the earth has its own wisdom, and makes a good partner in food production. The farmer's role is to encourage the general direction in which particular crops wish to grow, and to nudge them further. By being attentive and helpful, the farmer is midwife to the healthiest plants; the healthiest plants, in turn, bring forth the most nutritious and flavorful fruit.

My own practices vary from crop to crop (I also raise pome and stone fruits--cherries, peaches, nectarines, pears, apples and the like), and each year's new insights bring new experiments. Three key concepts, however, are unchangeable and govern those practices: the right plant in the right place, feeding the soil, protecting the ecology.

THE PLANT

My neighbor grows great apricots, while mine never flourish. The apricots my trees produce lack the deep, harmonious flavors of his. I cannot find a good explanation for why this particular fruit doesn't grow well exactly here, but that's the fact. So now I don't fight it, and instead trade my terrific Redhaven peaches for his terrific apricots, and I am happy. A plant knows where it can flourish. A farmer is one who recognizes a tendency to flourish, and finds ways to assist that tendency. His practices then flow easily from a position of service.

THE SOIL

When the right plant is growing in the right place, I trust its capacity to feed itself. What it needs from my intervention is a rich, vital, nourishing medium to mine for essential elements. It knows how much potassium it needs, and how much zinc; it doesn't need me to tell it. Annual tissue analysis confirms for me that a healthy soil contains virtually all the elements a tree needs, and in sufficient amounts. Let the tree, then, take as much as it wishes. We apply lots of compost to the field (not just within the dripline of the tree). We use horse manure (lots of horses hereabouts) and composted trimmings from local public works departments. We concentrate on getting strong stands of clover. Hykon rose clover works very well here, as do various subterranean clovers (Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, a great organic supply store, has a blend particularly suited to our terroir). We also work to keep the topsoil moist, to encourage the activity of earthworms and microbes. We apply foliar sprays--mostly fish emulsion and kelp--at intervals through the season as a boost.

THE ECOSYSTEM

It is also clear that, when established within their appropriate ecosystem, plants protect themselves quite well from external threats. So, we oppose any pressure to disrupt that ecosystem. We like bugs, and snakes, and weeds (in moderation, of course!). When things are in balance, harmful pests cannot dominate. We must, naturally, deal with certain crop-threatening pests, but we try to do so in as sensitive and surgical a manner as possible: by closely observing the pest, we can make the timing of our organic applications quite precise, thus keeping the amount of material to a minimum.

HEALTH BENEFITS

Living in alteration between the U.S. and the Mediterranean, I could observe two clear facts about food. One, it was a more important part of my life in the Mediterranean, and two, I felt healthier there. I think these facts are connected.

In Mediterranean countries, one spends more time shopping (pretty much every day for some things); one gets to know where the best products are to be found (THIS baker makes a better crust, THAT farmer's stall usually has fresher beans); one spends a considerably larger percentage of one's disposable income on food; one spends more time with friends around food; one is aware of the rhythms of the year through seasonal dishes (Easter bread, the first artichokes, preserved fruits in winter).

In America, we don't live a true regional cuisine; we instead enjoy a wide variety of cuisines: burritos on Monday, Indian curry on Tuesday, lasagna on Wednesday, steak and potatoes on Thursday, and out to a Chinese restaurant on Friday night. I quite enjoy that when I am here. But it does tend to distance us from real tasting, from living on a real planet. It places us in an environment in which novelty is particularly important, and where the embellishment of the thing is more important than the essence of it.

Around the Mediterranean, the range of foods available locally is smaller, and one is proportionately more aware of each ingredient. In Greece, you become a moussaka expert, sensitive to the thickness of the eggplant slices and the amount of cinnamon. In the north of Italy you notice subtle differences in the texture of polenta. And so on. You come to know which tomatoes are best for drying, at which size capers are most flavorful, and, of course, which olive oils enhance which dishes.

You seek higher quality ingredients. And the beautiful thing about this, and what is beneficial to health, is that there is a direct correlation between the flavor of the thing, and its nutritional value. Vegetables picked at true ripeness, fresh eggs from free-range chickens, meat from animals which have not been raised with hormones, extra-virgin oil, are all infinitely more flavorful than our usual supermarket products, and infinitely more nutritious.

But what of olive oil in particular? Olive oil is the primary fat used around the Mediterranean. While "fat" may not be a particularly well-regarded word these days, it remains essential to health. Olive oil has a tremendous advantage over animal fats in being monounsaturated. Animal fats are a source of harmful cholesterol, while olive oil actually contributes toward lowering cholesterol levels, and thereby coronary stress. And recent studies have shown that olive oil, when it is fresh and extra-virgin, is rich in vitamin E and antioxidants, which slow cellular aging.

My own experience is that when my diet is full of olive oil, I feel lighter and cleaner. I also feel, and I mean this in the best possible sense, LUBED: my joints feel well-oiled, my skin more supple, my digestion smoother.

Ours really is a very well designed universe. And this is one of the great confirmations: those very things that give us greatest true pleasure tend also to confer the greatest benefits. Bon appetit!